August 21, 2013

There are various modes of transport for people living in Asia. While some people do prefer walking, most own cars (or have bought these on hire-purchase) and then there are those who would rather go for public transportation because they find it more feasible than buying their own cars.

The road network is pretty good in Asia though it can be improved further. In the US, UK and Australia you may find that most of the cars on the roads belong to taxi companies but in Asian countries a large number of people own their own cars- especially in India and Pakistan. Most students here have their own cars and/or they decide to ‘car pool’ with their friends when going to university or school.

Then there are students who would rather walk to their schools if their university/college or destination is just a few minutes away though this depends upon the weather. You would probably come across a larger number of students walking in the winters, rather than in the summers since the summer heat is quite intense and energy-consuming though there are many “fitness freaks” who would prefer walking.

There are some people who cannot afford buying their own cars and they use rickshaws. Think of this vehicle as a motorcycle with a booth behind it for travelers. Though these are slower than cars, you could still get to your destination. You would be charged though and the amount of money you’d have to spend would depend upon where you have to go. The further away your destination would be, the higher the cost since these guys have to spend a lot of petrol/fuel on getting travelers to their destination. While some rickshaw owners are given vehicles by a company, others get their own rickshaws and their earnings depend upon the number of people that travel with them. It would be best to find other modes of transportation instead though because some rickshaw drivers tend to exploit people and charge them more just because they know that they come from a more privileged background.

Many students who aren’t too privileged have their own motorcycles and come and go to their destination on these vehicles.

Of course, you will come across buses too. Buses stop at certain stops on the road. The problem with a bus is that it will stop at a certain stop rather than take you to your destination. This way it’d take you longer to get to your destination. Another issue is that a bus will take its traveler to the nearest stop and if you don’t happen to be a traveler whose stop comes along the way, you’d have to wait for a little longer till it does. Schools and universities would have buses too but you may have to wait for a while till more students get free and need to go home because it’d make more sense for the bus to get on the road for a larger number of students.